Athletes from Ilford Athletic Club were out in force this weekend at two main Essex Venues, the Dagenham 5 mile race, and the Essex Way Trail Relay. Firstly at the Dagenham 5 mile road race held on the paths and trails of Hainault Forest, excellent victories in both the men's and women's races meant that both Ilford squads also went forward to take the spoils in the ELVIS interclub series. Bree Nordin (39.01) led the women home 3rd in in the womens race and top W45 on the day with Nicola Hopkinson 7th (41.51) and Dianne Crisp 8th (42.18) closing the 3 strong team squad. Jenny Cass 9th (43.37), Pam Jones 14th (45.04) and Sally Gillam 17th (46.06) completed the 6 Series scorers for the womens squad.

In the mens race Malcolm Muir placed 3rd  with Robin McNelis 8th (33.45), Neil Crisp 10th (33.51) taking the team prize. The winning mens Series 6 man squad was completed by Iain Mcdonald 11th (34.10), Andy Catton19th (35.44) and Abdi Berleen 25th 36.34). Darren Bottrill was 14th (34.50) but as the 4th senior home did not count towards the team score. Catton's 19th place gave him the top male 50 spot on the day.

Other athletes taking part included  Rohan Alexander , Steve Parker (37.24), Liam Leddy (38.10), Iain Burdin, (38.30), Matt Maple (40.47),  Henry Ricketts (41.29), Sukbinder Jandu (47.47), Henry Ricketts (41.29), Gerry Pells (52.38), Carol Muir  (53.15), Steve Port (DNF)

 

Individual success in the overall positions in the ELVIS interclub series went to :-

Men

1Rob Warner (Havering Mayesbrook) 4pts 2  Malcolm Muir (Ilford ) -8pts, Ken Hoye (Chelmsford) 14pts

MV40 - John Barker (Thrift Green Trotters) - 22pts MV50 Ron Vialls (Barking) - 68pts MV60 - Chris McDonnell (Havering 90) - 128pts

Women

1 Bree Nordin (Ilford) 10pts 2 Sue Spong (Havering 90) - 11pts 3 Natalie Snow (Ford Fitness) 13pts

FV35 Lindsey Barker (Ilford) - 14pts, FV45 Nicola Hopkinson (Ilford) - 20pts, FV55 Pam Jones (Ilford) - 49 pts

Team Prizes:- Men - Ilford AC, Women - Ilford AC

 

 

Many athletes then beat a hasty retreat straight after the Dagenham event dispersing to the various parts of Essex to compete in the historic Essex Way Trail race. The route covers the 82 miles of the Essex way comprising 10 stages starting from Epping Station at 8am and finishing at the Harwich Old Lighthouse at 7pm. The race can be difficult at the best of times being mostly cross country through crops and across ploughed fields and was not helped this year by the torrential downpours that bedeviled most of the stages .

Nevertheles the intrepid Bree Nordin had no time to collect her prizes from the Dagenham event as she dashed up the A12 to the start of Leg 5 at Cressing Church only to find the runners had set off some minutes earlier. Nordin was not deterred however and managed to catch many of the runners and finished strongly. Her travelling companion Malcolm Muir will also remember the day as he attempted to accumulate some much needed mileage in preparation for the Budapest marathon. The Ilford athlete easily won leg 7, West Bergholt to Dedham and then proceded to jog not only leg 8 but also leg 9 before his legs finally gave out and was reduced to a walk. This may not have been the wisest preparation for Budapest but the Ilford man reckoned he had put a useful 30 miles in the bank. The Ilford squad finished an excellent 19th against 45 competing teams.

Ilford Athletes competing were Leg 1  Epping Station to Chipping Ongar - Peter Spelman 22nd, Leg 2  Chipping Ongar to Good Easter  - John Mackenzie 25th , Leg 3  Good Easter to Little Leighs - Mel Jones, 22nd,  Leg 4 Little Leighs to Cressing Church - Ray Rawlinson 33rd , Leg 5  Cressing Church to Great Tey - Bree Nordin 26th, Leg 6  Great Tey to West Bergholt - Steve Cheal 17th,  Matt Maple also ran , Leg 7 West Bergholt to Dedham - Malcolm Muir, 1st, Leg 8  Dedham to Bradfield - Sally Gillam 36th, Leg 9  Bradfield to Ramsay - Martin Clarke 14th, Tony Nixon also ran, Leg 10 Ramsay to Harwich - Robin Davis 35th.